While caching in the Waterville area on Saturday we had an interesting experience with he area's finest. Had found a cache in a small parking area and were on our way out and headed to the next. Saw a patrol car cruise past and didn't think anything of it. Next thing we knew the cruiser did and about face and approached us with lights flashing. The officer was VERY professional but advised us that they had had a 911 cell call that was GPS traced to the general area my wife and I were located in that stated there was an instance of domestic assualt in progress. While the officer looked over ID and called everthing in. 3 other cruisers from various agencies also showed up. We had no problem with the stop, they were only trying to look out for the safety or all. Interesting cache non the less. 4 cars with lights on, being a teacher, if this had happened in my hometown, i never would have lived it down. there were locals from 2 towns, sheriff and state. waterville residents - rest easy, you are being well protected.
soapboxderbyfamily

Saint367

09-07-2008, 11:58 AM

All 911 calls go to a regional PSAP center. The ability to track the accuracy of the cell phone location depends on the length of the cell phone call to the center, the longer the better.

I found out the PSAP centers use the decimal format. We got a call a couple of months ago and the guy on the desk wrote the correct numbers down, but broke them up, so I took them as another format. Spent 2 hours with a GPS looking in the area and brush for a cell phone caller. None was found and all was good. The PSAP center actually gave us an address when they first called, but it was just an empty field, every 50' of road front represnts a new house number, so I asked for the coordinates. I checked with the Lt. of the local SP and inturn talked extensively with the communications supervisor on the knowing of what format we are given. After they receive a call and prior to them dispatching it to us, they will convert it to degrees and minutes plus give us the address. They are going to double check the address in their system with a map they will see when they convert the coordinates through an online conversion program.